Billboards

the world is tinged with sweet regret

as billboards flash their pixel paint.

what time remains sustained is froze

in photographs above the roads.

these faces once acquainted race

by windows, smeared as though i dream.

from point diverged our common lines,

to track our ways and write our lives.

ensuing years then ripped apart

the ribbons left by broken hearts.

i find you here, in signs that pass;

we intersect our threads at last.

the highway wends away in bends

towards ends i pray that meet again.

• 0ctober 2025

Submission History

Date	Publication	Status
November 2, 2025	Rejected	Pending
November 24, 2025	Artists from Maryland	Rejected

Responses

Dear Grant,

I like couplets and stanzas. I love enjambment. Each couplet was a complete sentence, so the enjambment was in the pulse forward. Nice work.

I am the new Arts Editor for Merion West; we are in transition. You stay present in your writing. Words do float off the page with consistent effort.

Grant, this poem is not quite right for Merion West at this point. I know that the “no’s” add up in this business of submitting poetry. Continue to revel in the craft of writing. I am a poet as well. The process of publishing poems is subjective and challenging. I’d enjoy reading more poems from you. You can send MW four submissions per year. Send us your Most Brilliant Poems!

Thank you for sharing your work with Merion West. We wish you the best in your writing.

—Austin Allen James, Merion West